Pharm School Receives Grant to Help with Part D

JANUARY 01, 2007

Wendy K. Bodine, Assistant Editor

For seniors who benefit from the
Medicare Part D plan, reenrolling
this past fall was more of a chore
than ever, especially since some had to
recalculate their costs to avoid the
dreaded "doughnut hole" of 2006. Drug
plans changed, medicines were added to
and dropped from formularies, premiums
went up and down, and seniors
were once again caught in the middle.

To help meet some of the anticipated
challenges, the University of California,
San Francisco (UCSF) Pharmacy School
has developed a program to help seniors
with their drug plan decisions. Entitled
"Partners in D," the program is expected
to run for 3 1/2 years and will be geared
toward training tomorrow's pharmacists
in the most effective ways to handle Part
D questions as they arise. Along with 6
other schools of pharmacy in California
that will partner in the program, the
school will incorporate training on
Medicare Part D into pharmacy student
curricula. The students will then instruct
their fellow professional health
care students in the fields of medicine
and nursing.

The program will also enable pharmacy
students to help seniors make informed
decisions when choosing their Medicare
Part D plans, with a special focus on
underserved communitieslow-income
and non-English-speaking seniors in particular.
The university will reap the benefits
of its multicultural student body by
using their various ethnic backgrounds
and language skills to reach these seniors
with Medicare information relevant to the
state's diverse population.

"Partners in D" was the result of a pilot
outreach developed by students at the
pharmacy school and directed by Marilyn
Stebbins, PharmD; Helene Levens Lipton,
PhD; and Tim Cutler, PharmD;
all of the Department of Clinical
Pharmacy at the school. Together,
they took part in outreach
events in Sacramento
and San Francisco designed to
assist low-income and non-
English-speaking Medicare recipients
with making their Part
D decisions. Students at the
school wanted to extend the
program statewide.

Dr. Cutler explained, "The
students recognized that
there's a huge problem with
Medicare Part D, especially
when dealing with the most
underserved seniors." He stated
that, in the initial pilot outreach
program, nearly 2500
seniors benefited from the students'
and faculty expertise on
Part D, especially those with
cultural and language barriers.
The pharmacy school has an ethnically
diverse student body, and they were able
to reach out to many of these seniors in
their own languages.

Dr. Stebbins noted, "We discovered
that many non-English-speaking populations
[are wary of] the system and others
outside their culture. They respond better
to students from their own cultures
than they would with translators. They
were thankful to have someone explain
the Part D benefit to them on their own
level."

Dr. Cutler also noticed the positive
response to their outreach. "When [the
seniors] hear ‘Part D,'they panic and get
angry. They think we're trying to sell
them a plan. But when they realize that
we're there to help them, it's amazing to
watch their faces change and see how
grateful they were that we could help
them understand." The researchers conducted
pre-and post-outreach surveys,
and the response so far has been overwhelmingly
positive.

Dr. Lipton said that the school provides
its students with cultural competency
and health literacy training so they can
better help Medicare beneficiaries understand
their options. She explained
that "the students were really the driving
force behind this program. We felt a
tremendous need to get out of the classroom
and the pharmacy and into the
community and help those who needed
it mostthose in the lower-income and
multilingual populations."

The Amgen Foundation also recognized
this need. Based in Thousand Oaks,
Calif, the nonprofit foundation distributes
grants to regional and national nonprofit
organizations that support its mission of
improving individual's lives through science
and innovation. Drs. Lipton and
Stebbins investigated the grant and
applied for it during the summer of 2006,
and the foundation approved their
request in October. The pharmacy school
was awarded $3.7 million to help fund
the "Partners in D" program. The grant
allows for the program to expand in
scope and extend statewide. One of the
key elements of the grant is the research
needed to determine the overall success
of the program and make evidence-
based changes in it as it unfolds.

Jean Lim, president of the Amgen
Foundation said, "'Partners in D'represents
the essence of what our foundation
stands for: advancing education,
improving quality of care and access
for patients, and creating sound communities.
We support this program
because it clearly takes full advantage
of a diverse student body and encourages
a spirit of collaboration."

One of the primary benefits the grant
will bring to the program is greater
Internet access; students rely on laptop
computers during outreaches to
access accurate information quickly,
and the added funding will help them
assist seniors in sorting out their
Medicare options while in the field.

Dr. Cutler stressed the importance
of reaching Medicare seniors on their
levels and understanding their problems
with the program. "People who
come to us have complicated issues,
or they don't understand the program?
we've identified individuals
that didn't even know they were in
Medicare or Medicaid, or that their
coverage could change from one year
to the next. We try to help them understand
the challenges and take a proactive
stance."